1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital systems, and more particularly, the transmission of audio information in digital systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the number of available devices utilizing digital audio has increased dramatically. Such devices include smart phones, portable music players, tablet computers, and laptop computers, among others. To this end, bus and interface standards for integrated circuits (ICs) that transmit and received digital audio signals (either within or in conjunction with other devices) have been employed.
One such bus is the I2S (Inter-IC Sound) bus, which is a serial bus for coupling digital audio devices to one another. Another type of bus is the Multi-Channel audio (MCA) bus, the development of which was influenced by the I2S bus and pulse code modulation (PCM), the latter of which to digitally represent sampled analog signals.
The MCA bus standard includes signal connections for framing signals, a clock signal, and data signals. Furthermore, the MCA bus standard includes various modes in which devices designated as masters and slaves can exchange data with each other. In one particular mode, a master device may transmit a framing signal and a clock signal to a slave mode, which may then respond by transmitting data back to the master.